The Boy Scouts on the Trail

G >> George Durston >> The Boy Scouts on the Trail

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

"I can," said Henri, proudly.

"Really? All right. I'd rather not spare a man. You will take these
dispatches in the same containers in which they were brought, and
deliver them to Colonel Menier, if he is still in Amiens. If not, to
Major Fremille. You will also turn over the motor car to the French
authorities there. Shall you stay in Amiens after that, even if the
French leave, which they will?"

"Yes, sir, unless there is something we can do elsewhere."

"I rather think you'll be able to do more there than anywhere else, if
the Germans don't drive you out. But you'll hear of that from the
French officer you report to. By the way, when I spoke of the convoy
that resisted a Uhlan attack, you didn't tell me you'd had anything to
do with that. Why not?"

"We didn't, sir," said Frank, surprised. "We got away just as the
fighting began."

"Yes, and sorry to go, too, I'll wager! Captain Hardy reported that it
was your quickness and intelligence that saved him, and enabled him to
get help up in time to save the convoy. Something about the hands of a
clock you saw moving, eh?"

"That was nothing, sir," said Frank. "I just happened to see that they'd
moved, when a minute before the clock had seemed to have stopped."

"Maybe it was nothing, but we hadn't got on to it before. And if they've
been doing that at all steadily it accounts for the way they've been
able to drop shells on to what we supposed were concealed positions.
They shelled the house the staff was in two days ago. We're giving them
a good fight, but they beat us pretty badly when it comes to spying. If
we had a few more people with eyes as quick as yours, we'd be better
off. Come on, I'll take you out and see you started."

As they reached the street they saw General Smith-Derrien climbing into
a great automobile that started off at once, moving south toward Paris.
What little they had seen of him had already made them conceive a great
admiration for the silent British commander, who only a few days later
was to be honored as the first brilliant figure of the war on the allied
side. It was for his very conduct of this retreat that Field Marshal
French, the British commander-in-chief, selected him for special mention
in his dispatches.

They had to wait a few minutes while Major Cooper attended to the
details of getting a car for them.

"Oh, Frank," said Henri, wistfully, "I wish I'd been the one to go!
Though I wouldn't have done so well, I'm sure of that."

"Nonsense! You'd have done as well, and better," said Frank.

"No! But think of what you have done for France, for what is done for
the English now is done for France as well. I am glad the English are
fighting with us now, instead of against us. I--"

Major Cooper's return interrupted him.

"Here's your car coming now," he said. "You'll have to take a long way
around. There are troops, or will be, on all the direct roads, and,
besides, bridges are being blown up fast. Take the road that leads to
Abbeville, over toward the sea. Use your own judgment about when you
turn south, but keep moving toward the west until you are very close to
Abbeville. After that you will have a fairly clear course. We haven't
any reason to think that the Germans are in that direction at all as
yet, though where they may be to-morrow no one knows. I needn't tell you
to keep your eyes open. But if you do run into Germans, don't try to get
away. There's very little chance of their finding the papers you carry,
and, if they do, it is not important enough for us to want you to run
any great risk. If you see them coming, hide at once. The motor doesn't
matter."

Henri took the driver's seat and Frank sprang in beside him. And Henri,
feeling that he had been pushed a little into the background, started
the motor at once. He really could drive a car, having learned from his
father years before, and he soon showed, when he had made himself
familiar with the details of his machine, that he was to be trusted with
it. And so, with a blast of his horn, he made a quick turn and sent the
car roaring into the night. That was only to show off, however, for in a
moment he muffled his engine, and the car spun along almost in silence,
the motor purring evenly, as if to show that it was in perfect trim and
ready to give the car all the speed that was needed.

The rain had stopped by this time, but the roads were still muddy and
greasy, and at first, too, there was a good deal of traffic. Guns and
men were moving, and, moreover, there was another danger. The German
guns had evidently moved up, and a shell fell near them once in a while,
but not so near as to bother them.

After a few miles of travelling, however, they found the road freer, and
found also that the sound of the rear guard engagement that was covering
the British retreat was further off. Five miles saw them riding through
fields where twinkling lights showed the presence of troops, and they
were stopped by a French guard. The pass Major Cooper had given them got
them through, and the soldiers laughed and chatted while an officer was
examining it. These were fresh troops, hurriedly brought up to hold off
the Germans while the exhausted British retired to new positions, and
they were gay, light-hearted fellows. True, they had not yet been in
action, but to Frank it seemed that they were likely to be jovial after
they had heard bullets singing over their heads.

"They don't seem to feel bad," said Henri. "And it is the same with the
English. They are retreating, and still they are cheerful."

"You say that as if it was something remarkable!" said Frank, with a
laugh. "Of course they're cheerful. They've got faith in their leaders,
and they know, I suppose, that a retreat is often necessary. They'll
turn the tables before long."

"It seems strange to be where it is so quiet," said Frank, when they had
finally passed beyond sound of the skirmishing on the extreme left of
the allied line, formed by the French force through which they had
passed. "I'm expecting to see Germans every time we make a turn."

"So am I," said Henri. "And why shouldn't we? If they are trying to turn
the allied flank, we're as likely to see them in this direction as not."

"Look here," said Frank, "you're perfectly right. We haven't got orders
to make particularly good time. Let's keep on right to Abbeville. That's
at the mouth of the Somme. Then we can turn toward Boulogne. If there
are Germans around here at all they'll be in that direction. We might
get some trace of their cavalry. Or we might do what we did before,
strike some of their infantry. I don't think we're so likely to do that,
though."

"We'll try it, anyhow," said Henri.

And so they turned toward St. Pol, instead of making the sharp turn at
right angles that would have brought them to Amiens. Here there were
traces, indeed, of a German invasion. Peasants, alarmed by the reports
of Uhlans seen at Arras and near Boulogne, were in full flight.

"We needn't bother about that," said Frank. "Anything that these people
know the intelligence department has found out. No troops advancing at
all openly could get by the aeroplanes without being seen. And I think
the railroad in this direction has been watched. I saw a lot of
aeroplanes flying over this way this afternoon, and there would be more
from Boulogne. There are English warships there, I've heard, and their
naval flyers would cover this part of the country."

Suddenly Henri slowed down the car. He kept one hand on the wheel, the
car moving slowly forward, but his gaze was fixed on the sky. Finally he
stopped the car altogether.

"Look up there," he said, quietly, to Frank. "Do you see that light?
First I thought it was a star. But there aren't any other stars, and now
I'm sure it's moving. Do you see?"

He pointed, and Frank's eyes followed his finger.

"You're right," he said. "Hello! Now it's gone--no, there it is again!
See, it flashes and then disappears! It's some sort of a signal from the
air. Keep the car still."

He tried to follow the flashes of the light, hoping to read the message
if it was in Morse code. But he soon found that it was not. And then
Henri cried out sharply.

"If it's a signal, it's being answered from over there!" he said. "See,
there's a light waving there. It looks as if it might be from the roof
of a house. I--"

CHAPTER XVI

A DARING EXPLOIT

Frank leaped out.

"Turn the car around first," he said. Henri obeyed. "Now try your
starter. Cut out the motor and then see if she starts quickly."

Henri, mystified, obeyed.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because when we want to start, we may have to do it in an awful hurry,"
said Frank. He searched the road for a moment. "Run her back a few feet
to where that big tree is. It's darker there than anywhere else around
here. All right, that's far enough. We'll have to take the chance of
something coming along while we're gone and bumping into her but I don't
believe there's much risk of that. Now, come on! And quiet! We've got to
get up to that place without being seen."

Cautiously they approached the house. No lights showed in any of its
windows; the place looked deserted. Indeed, all around it were traces
of hasty flight. It was a wayside inn, of a type common always in
France, commoner than ever since the spread of the craze for automobiles
and motor touring. Suddenly Frank stopped.

"Wait a minute for me," he said. "I've got to go back to the car. I
ought to have thought of it before."

"What do you want?"

"Batteries. I saw a coil of wire in the car and I want that, too. And
there must be batteries. A car like this would carry everything needed
for small repairs, wouldn't it?"

"Yes. I think you'll find them under my seat."

Frank was back in less than five minutes.

"All right," he said. "I don't know whether we'll have time to do what I
want or not, and whether I'll be able to do it, anyhow. But it's worth
trying. Now come on past the house. Easy! This is the hardest part of
it."

They slipped by. However, Frank uttered a suppressed exclamation as soon
as they had done so. Before them, on the right of the road was a field
easily two or three times as large as the ordinary French field. As a
rule the land in France is split up into very small sections, closely
cultivated. But here was a cleared field as large as those commonly seen
in England or America, with no fences for perhaps a quarter of a mile in
any direction. Henri turned to look back at the inn.

"They're still signalling from there--and look! There are two lights
now, instead of one, above!"

These lights were still some distance away. Frank studied them. Then he
led the way into the field.

"I thought so!" he said, with suppressed triumph in his voice. "Do you
see those barrels over there toward the inn? There's petrol in those--or
I'll eat my shirt!"

"And if there is?" said Henri. "What then?"

"Can't you guess? What do you suppose those lights mean?"

"Aeroplanes?"

"Never! They wouldn't flash that way. They'd have to be in a different
position entirely. No. Dirigibles!"

"Zeppelins?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps Parsevals or Schutte-Lanz airships. I think Parsevals,
for they need gasoline. And Zeppelins could fly from Brussels or Liege,
almost from Cologne--oh, I have it! That's why they need petrol!"

"Why?"

"They haven't flown over Belgium at all! They are from the sea!"

"Oh--so that they could come secretly, and not be seen as they passed
over Belgium?"

"Yes. If they flew over Belgium they would have to cross some territory
that the Germans do not hold, and word would go to Antwerp and from
there to the army here. Now quickly! They will be here soon. They are
coming nearer every minute."

They went to the barrels as fast as they dared. There was nearly a score
of them, all close together. Each had a tap, and it was proof enough
that they contained petrol to open the tap of one. The smell identified
them beyond any doubt whatever.

"Come on, and help me dig a hole," said Frank. He dropped to his knees,
and began scooping out the soft earth with his hands. Henri fell to with
a will, though he was sadly puzzled. But when the hole had been dug to a
depth of perhaps two feet, and Frank began to hollow out a trench toward
the barrels he began to understand. And as soon as he did, he worked as
hard as Frank himself, careless of torn finger nails and bleeding hands.
They carried the trench to the foot of one of the barrels, and Frank
turned the tap. The gasoline ran out into the trench, and flowed to the
hole. Frank ran back to the hole.

"Stop it when I give the word," he said. "Now!"

Then he was busy with the copper wire he had brought from the automobile
for several minutes. The wire had been carried either to repair cut
telegraph or telephone wires, or to serve as the conductor for a field
system of lighting. But whatever its original purpose had been, Frank
was thankful now that he had found it. He worked fast, and was satisfied
at last.

"Now a little straw and a few twigs over the hole and the trench--and
the sooner they come, the better!"

"Yes, the sooner, the better!" echoed Henri, tremendously excited, now
that he understood, even if rather vaguely, what Frank planned. "Vive la
France! A bas les Allemands!"

As they went back toward the road Frank trailed the wire behind him in
two lengths. And when they reached the road, he dropped into the ditch,
and was busy for some minutes.

"Now if it only works!" he said. "Perhaps it will; perhaps it won't. But
it can't do any harm. That's certain."

"They're coming closer. I think I can see their shapes now--and there
are two of them," said Henri. "Do you see?"

For a moment Frank could not. Henri's eyes were sharper than his. But
then he did make out vaguely two immense shapes that were coming through
the air. Soon, too, the faint hum of their powerful motors made itself
heard.

"Zeppelins and big fellows, too," said Frank. "All the better!"

He wondered if his plan would work, and if he would be able to carry it
out. If, in the final test, would he dare to do what he had tried to
arrange? Time enough to think of that when the moment for decision came.
And meanwhile there were a hundred things that might happen to ruin his
plan. There was nothing to do now but wait. But every moment of waiting
brought the climax nearer. The hum of the motors of the airships rose
louder on the quiet air, broken only by the faint and distant mutter of
the battle that was still being fought miles away. It sounded now like
the buzzing of a swarm of bees, magnified a thousand times. And then the
field was full of men, rushing from the inn. He wondered how they could
have been concealed there. But such wonder was idle, and he did not
think of it. Instead he watched keenly. First one monstrous aerial
battleship came to rest on the earth. At once the men in the field
surrounded her, seizing the ropes that were flung out, and made her
fast.

There was a good deal of noise. Men were calling in German of course.
But soon order was restored, and the only voices were those giving
commands. Suddenly Frank's face lighted up.

"Did you understand, Henri?" he said. "The men in the field are to be
the crews for the fighting. They have sailed here with only enough men
to steer them. And now all are ordered out, to stretch their legs!"

"Yes, I heard that order," said Henri.

"Now keep your eyes glued to them. What are they doing?"

They listened and watched intently.

"Just as I thought," said Frank. "See, they are going to fill the tanks.
There, they are attaching hose. And they have a pump--they surely must
have a pump, to send the petrol uphill!"

Meanwhile the other airship had come down, on the other side of the
barrels, and there as nearly as they could judge, the same procedure was
carried out.

"Watch, Henri! Are they pumping?" cried Frank.

"Yes!" said Henri. "Now--now--now is your time, Francois!"

Frank hesitated the fraction of a second.

"If it meant killing them, I could not do it," he said, solemnly. "But
they are all out of the airships. Now!"

On the word he closed the circuit he had made by connecting the loose
ends of the wire he had carried from his petrol filled hole to the two
batteries he had brought from the car. He had broken the circuit at the
other end, leaving the two wires separated by the fraction of an inch,
and cunningly held in place. The result was a spark--or would be, if he
had not erred.

And he had made no mistake! For as he closed the circuit, he saw a
flash of flame at the spot where he and Henri had dug the hole into
which the petrol had flowed from the barrel they had opened. The spark
had fired the explosive gas that results when petrol is mixed with air.
The flame ran along the shallow trench, and, amid a chorus of shrieks
from the Germans who scattered in all directions, the fire reached the
barrel. In a moment there was a loud explosion. The flame flew to the
other barrels--the whole neighborhood of the barrels, owing to the
mixture of the petrol and the air, was then filled with an explosive and
inflammable gas.

There was a great flash of flame, broken by a dozen sharp reports as one
barrel after another blew up.

And still, though the Germans were flying in all directions, plainly
visible in the light of the blazing gasoline, the real success of
Frank's plan hung in the balance. But then what he had calculated
happened. The flame ran through the lines of hose. And a moment later
two great shafts of flame marked the spread of the fire to the helpless
monsters of the air. There was no chance to save them. Indeed, even the
Germans had no other thought than to save their own lives. Their raid,
whatever its ultimate object, was ruined and two vessels of the great
air fleet of the Kaiser were destroyed.

For a moment after the final catastrophe the two scouts stayed, caught
by the wonder and the magnificence of the ruin they had wrought. But
then Frank cried out,

"Come on! We haven't a moment to lose! They'll know that that was no
accident! Some came running this way. They'll find the wires! And then
they'll know. The wires will bring them here. Hurry!"

They began running desperately toward the automobile.

CHAPTER XVII

THE ESCAPE

Their one chance of escape, as they both realized fully, was to get back
to their automobile before the Germans recovered themselves sufficiently
to begin searching for those who had brought such swift and terrible
disaster upon their enterprise. And so they made no effort to move
quietly or secretly now. To do so would have meant delay and delay was
what they could not afford. The distance seemed far greater than when
they had first traversed it. It seemed that they would never pass the
house which the Germans had used as a base. But finally they reached it.
And as they did so a door burst open, and they saw a light within.

A man, with the cap of a German officer, though otherwise he wore
civilian clothes, came rushing out, tugging at his pistol. He had heard
them running. By some bad chance, then, there had been a man--a
German--left in the inn!

"Stop!" he cried, furiously.

But they kept on running. He could not see them, dazzled as he was by
coming from the lighted house into the deep darkness of the road. But he
was in front of them, and they slowed up, instinctively, though they
still ran. And then they came into the light of the door. He started
back.

"Kinder!" he cried. "Children!"

It was the exclamation of the Uhlan who had stopped them in the
afternoon. But now it was uttered in a vastly different tone. The German
was beside himself with rage. Perhaps he had had some heavy share of
responsibility for the safety of the Zeppelins. But whether that were so
or not, he was plainly maddened by the sight of the boys. He could
scarcely have understood how completely they were responsible, but the
way they were running and the direction whence they came proved only too
clearly that they had had some hand in it.

"Stop, Henri!" cried Frank, suddenly. "We can't get away. We surrender!"

They stopped. Frank was obeying the order Major Cooper had given him.
Perhaps, had he been alone, he would have risked a further attempt to
escape. But there was no doubt that the German meant to shoot, and he
could not expose Henri to the risk.

They stopped full in the path of light that came from the open door of
the inn. Behind them, in the road, voices were raised. It was plain that
their wires had been followed, and that others were in pursuit. And,
after all, Frank felt they could afford to grin at being made prisoners
now. They had accomplished a great feat. Even if they were caught, that
was to their credit.

And then suddenly he gave a cry of horror. Henri was a little ahead of
him for he had not been able to stop as abruptly as Frank. And the
German officer, too furious, perhaps, to think of what he was doing,
raised his pistol and fired point-blank at the French boy! He fired--but
there came from his pistol not a sharp report, but only the dull click
as the hammer fell. Twice more he pulled the trigger. But something was
wrong. He had made a fatal error--his revolver was unloaded.

But it was only by the luckiest of accidents that Henri was still alive.
Frank had seen the murderous attempt, and now rage mastered him for the
moment.

"You coward!" he shrieked. He flung himself at the German officer, who
was trying frantically to get at his cartridges. So sudden was the
attack that he was taken utterly by surprise. Before he could defend
himself, Frank was wrenching his arm. A moment more, and the German
officer squealed like a frightened pig, for Frank had succeeded in
getting a hammer lock on him. He pulled at the revolver with his other
hand, and at last the German, to escape a broken arm, had to loosen his
grip. Even a weakling can cripple the strongest man if he once gets that
hold. And Frank, in his rage at the cowardly thing he had seen, was
almost a match for the full grown man in any case.

As soon as he got the revolver he let go of the German's arm. But before
the officer could move, Frank had clubbed the pistol and struck him
sharply on the head. He went down like a log.

"Run, Henri, run!" he cried. "They're coming up behind us! Run for the
car!"

Behind them, indeed, the footsteps of running men were plainly to be
heard. A shot rang out, but both boys had turned instinctively to the
side of the road and were running low in the ditch beside the highway.
They could not be seen, and the firing ceased. It seemed that most of
the men were unarmed, or carried revolvers at the most. Had there been
rifles behind them, they would have had no chance. But as it was, they
reached their car and leaped in. Henri threw the switch of the electric
starter, the motor leaped into throbbing life, and they were off.

Behind them more shots were fired, but the aim was wild. And they sped
away, at fifty miles an hour, pursued only by a few vain revolver
bullets, and by a chorus of shouts and yells of rage and execration.

"The coward!" stormed Frank. He had never been so angry in his life. "He
might have killed you, Harry! And just because he was in a rage over
what had happened to the airships! He didn't even know that you'd had
anything to do with it--not positively! And we'd already surrendered."

Henri laughed--and he meant the laugh. It was not affectation. He had
faced his danger in the true spirit of the Frenchman, who is as brave in
action as any man in the world.

"Eh, well!" he said. "He did not shoot me, so what does it matter? That
was a fine crack on the head you gave him! He will remember us, I think,
next time he sees us."

Frank shuddered a little.

"I hope not!" he said. "Or, that if he does, he will be a prisoner
himself, and won't be able to try to get even."

Frank remembered the look of sheer devilish rage in the eyes of the
German. It was not pleasant to think that they might meet again.

"If it is to be, it will be," said Henri. "I bear him no grudge! He had
cause to be angry--ma foi, yes! The Kaiser will not say pretty things
when he hears of what we did to-night, Francois!"

"No!" Frank laughed. "I wonder where those airships were meant to go?
Paris? They could have done terrible damage. Perhaps they were to attack
the army--to lie behind its course, knowing that our aeroplanes would be
scouting on the front. They might have made it harder than ever to
retreat in good order. But I think they would have gone to Paris. I
think that they would have been there before daylight."

"And now--pouf!" said Henri. "What is left of them? Not so much as would
fill a barrel!"

Once all danger of pursuit was past, Henri had slowed down the speed of
the car. Both scouts were thoroughly tired out by this time. They had
had a strenuous day, and a night that merited the description of
strenuous even more fully than the day. And now that danger seemed to
lie behind them, and a clear road to safety in front, their weariness
was realized fully for the first time.

They could hardly have escaped the Germans, had any lain between
Abbeville and Amiens. But none were there, as it turned out. The road
was clear and open before them, and the car rolled along smoothly.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9